I used to edit Innovation Management. My book, "The Elastic Enterprise", co-authored with Nick Vitalari and described as a must read for companies that want to succeed in the new era of business - looks at how stellar companies have gone beyond innovation to a new form of wealth creation. I speak on new innovation paradigms.
I started my writing career in broadcasting and then got involved in the EU's attempt to create an ARPA-type unit, where I managed downstream satellite application pilots, at just the time commercial satellite services entered the market. I also wrote policy, pre the Web, on broadband applications, 3G (before it was invented), and Wired Cities.
I have written for many major outlets like the Wall St Journal, Times, HBR, and GigaOm, as well as producing TV for the BBC, Channel 4 and RTE. I am a research fellow at the Center For Digital Transformation at UC Irvine, where I am also an advisory board member, advisory board member at Crowdsourcing.org and Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research.
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“Google, Yahoo and others gather correlate, analyze and use personal identity metadata including your location, search history, browsing history to monetarize for their own purposes or to sell to others. I believe Apple is trying to build a counter story on security using identity and services encapsulated in devices you own.”

When you do business with Google, as a consumer, you strike a deal. In return for free search you get ads and for those ads you agree to your data being collected, stored and sold on. The way Apple sees business up ahead, when you use an Apple health service, Apple manages data for you, on your terms. That is a revolution.

Greg’s note of caution though is well advised because none of us know quite how Apple will implement its new “kits”. In health in particular the ultimate solution will be determined by standards that Apple may help to define. It’s also a long road – health is a conservative sector.

In order to find out more though, and picking up on Greg’s intimation of identity as the core of the solution, I spoke via email with David Waite and Paul Madsen at Ping Identity, specialists in identity management,and Farid Fadaie, senior director of product at Bit Torrent, for an alternative view of security and identity in health.

These experts have a particular interest in the use of identity and distributed systems as security mechanisms.

The first point to emerge from that discussion is that Apple has entered the health arena as an enabler. There’s surely a lesson there for every other business contemplating or executing a platform strategy.

Whatever Apple does down the line, first base is to enable local storage on the iPhone of data collected by other devices, says Waite

Short term it is entirely on the phone. They do not even support Health Kit on iPad (from what I understand) to have it work between my devices.

Apple is positioning its Health app as the point of aggregation for all the user’s different health data, and Health Kit the development platform to enable that integration. But critically, indications are that the health data will for the most part be collected by sensors (Nike+, Withings Scale, Fitbit Flex etc) of other wearable manufacturers…. offering – i..e stay away from the hardware for now and instead provide the services & software glue to tie all the existing hardware into some sort of cohesive whole.

One reason for that might be security. The iPhone (at least the later versions) have fingerprint sensor security. If health data passes between an iPhone and an iPad how can the device(s) be sure of the user’s identity? On a single device, especially the iPhone that has fingerprint access, identity is solvable on the device.

With multiple devices it becomes more difficult and more prone to the complexity of multiple users.

They seem to want one device to represent a single persona, says Waite, – not a bad position for a hardware vendor to take. They encapsulate your online identity for services like Twitter and Facebook onto your device, but this is primarily so that applications do not do this work themselves.

That also means Apple is looking to deepen the service value of the smartphone, something Samsung has been trying to do. Samsung, however, has also added more devices (the Gear and Gear Fit in particular). Apple seems to be rallying the market back towards the iPhone.

It means Apple must see the iPhone as a key profit center for years to come.

It does also mean though that Apple must now innovate rapidly in services. As Health Kit builds momentum, Apple will be in need of a new identity solution Madsen says. Its attempt, in the near future, to parlay data between institutions and devices.

….absolutely demands an underlying standardized identity layer that would give the necessary security for the health data as it flows, and the users the requisite privacy-enabling control over that flow.

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What’s even more potentially revolutionary is the way it could reverse how patient data is treated by health care providers: TODAY: where data is hoarded by care providers and viewed as “their” asset TOMORROW: where data is appropriately shared by care providers under control/permissions exercised by patients themselves

HealthKit creates another upscale Apple Store, like the physical stores, iTunes, and App Store. I see a secure bi-lateral, voluntary exchange between health providers and Apple’s upscale customer base. The term health provider is wide open, ranging from ‘true’ Md’s to personal trainers, to self-tracking or training teams.

The thing about Paper Records is that there were no requisite requirements.

In the medical field, if records aren’t available, espeicially allergy data, people could have additional issues getting the medical care they need.

My thoughts of Apple changed when while at an Apple Store, and with Apple “Geniuses” with nothing to do, told me I needed to “schedule an appointment”

I said “Great! I’ll talk to you then!”

They then turned a computer around on the demo, and pulled up a website for me to “sign up” for an appointment. I had forgotten my appleID password, so that had to be send to my phone also.

I booked the appointment, got a message on my phone, and the two “Geniuses” continued to play footsie.

Anyways, I think Apple Health Kit may help lean out a very busy organization, such as the VA, or available through the insurance plan my ex has.

As long as an appointment to get the hardware to work is necessary when the hardware isn’t working, I’d like to purchase two before The FDA or Surgeon General is required to place a large warning sticker on it that reads “Not For Use In Emergency Purposes” or Apple secretly updates the licensing terms again.

Thanks Haydn – I enjoyed talking, appreciate the quote, and look forward to learning more as Apple’s plans and products unfold.

In a related Twitter conversation with Jon Udell I said only Apple, Google, and arguably MS have leverage, skill, and $ to pull off secure continuation across devices and apps with phone as token for identity.

Apple seems determined and is well armed, but has fumbled on Passbook and first iterations of iCloud.

However, iCloud reliability has gotten much better for me in synching contacts, calendar, mail, photo streams etc across Mac and iOS devices, and the stakes seem much higher for Apple’s WWDC 2014 direction.

I agree that Samsung has the hardware chops, but would guess that they will end up relying on one or more of the big three to pull of the challenge I believe Apple has laid down. We’ll see.

If Apple is managing the data is it really on my terms? Apple doesn’t have a history of transparency with the public. Once you park your data with them you’ll become part of their proprietary juggernaut.

Built on open source, Respect Network will offer a guarantee of portability, multiple providers, a trust framework and a reputation system – none of which are on Apple’s radar.

Do you want to lock your medical records into Apple the way your music is locked into iTunes?